'Um grito de alarme contra a degenerescência da espécie':Homosexuality and Decadence in the Anarchosyndicalist A Batalha in the Early 1920s Richard Cleminson and Diogo Duarte Abstract This article sets discourse on homosexuality in the early 1920s anarchosyndicalist daily A Batalha within the context of the history of the anarchist labour movement, literary and cultural representations of same-sex desire, and contemporary scientific understandings. It highlights the 'campaign' by A Batalha against homosexuality, which was perceived as an expression of biological and cultural degeneration and sets the 'alarm' sounded by the daily within the context of leftist ideas on sexuality in general. The understanding of homosexuality as evidence of such degeneracy led authors in the newspaper to condemn such desire and, while at the same time refusing to advocate its punishment, to argue that a purified society would lead to the reassertion of heterosexual values. Resumo Este artigo situa o discurso sobre a homossexualidade no periódico anarco-sindicalista A Batalha ao início dos anos 1920 no contexto da história do movimento operário anarquista, das representações literárias e culturais desta expressão de sexualidade e das teorias científicas contemporâneas. Destaca a 'campanha' de A Batalha contra a homossexualidade, percebida como expressão de degeneração biológica e cultural e coloca o 'alarme' da publicação no contexto das ideias esquerdistas sobre a sexualidade em geral. A compreensão da homossexualidade como evidência de tal degeneração levou os autores do periódico a condenar tal prática e, se bem que se recusassem a defender a sua punição, argumentavam que uma sociedade purificada levaria à reafirmação dos valores heterossexuais. Keywords Homosexuality, A Batalha, anarchism, degeneration Palavras-chave Homossexualidade, A Batalha, anarquismo, degeneração Introduction: Homosexuality and Labour History The overlap between the history of homosexuality and social attitudes towards it may seem to be somewhat removed from the dynamics of labour movements. The reception of understandings and perceptions about homosexuality in trades unions and political parties, however, are but a microcosm of broader attitudes in society generally and even though they may take on a particular hue in these milieus, they provide evidence of the lines of tension existing within the rejection/tolerance dyad that informs such practices. Although we may perhaps anticipate greater tolerance of alternative or non-mainstream sexualities and expressions of gender within 'progressive' labour movements across the globe, this may have more to do with the historian's subjective expectations than reality. Such positive attitudes were often absent in the past and, in some instances, opposition to homosexuality within labour movements was marked. The acceptance or otherwise of homosexuality as an expression of greater sexual freedom relied principally on contextual factors such as movements' relationships with modernity, the power of science to explain social phenomena and the reception of secularist ideas. While much has now been written on gender questions within labour movements beyond the mere 'incorporation' of women into movement history to embrace the relations between men and women within them,1 the question of non-reproductive sexuality, whether 'heterosexual' or 'homosexual',2 and the [End Page 45] ways in which this was perceived in labour movements, continues to constitute an undeveloped field. This is certainly the case for Portugal and this article seeks to open up this question for analysis. In the past, despite the advocacy of long-term relationships outside the tutelage of the church and state expressed in the form of 'free love' by anarchists from the late nineteenth century onwards and a commitment to women's rights and a more open attitude to contraception, for example, the expression of 'promiscuous' heterosexual relations outside marriage and the home was often viewed with suspicion by labour activists as a bourgeois manifestation of libidinous behaviour not fit for anarchists and to be avoided in the 'new society' that they attempted to create. The question of same-sex relations, if it was touched on at all, was received less openly still and often formed part of a moralistic discourse on 'normal' or 'natural' sexual behaviour for both men and women. In the powerful Spanish anarchist movement, a habitus defined...
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Oct 10, 2024
Graham Ward 
Open Access
